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Ryland Fisher has more than 35 years of experience in the media industry as an editor, journalist, columnist, author, senior manager and executive.

He is the former Editor of the Cape Times and The New Age, and was assistant editor of the Sunday Times. He writes a weekly column, called Thinking Allowed, in the Weekend Argus (published in Cape Town) and occasionally for various publications. He is a judge for the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Awards.

Fisher has worked with and in corporates, academia and government. He is the author of Race (published in 2007), a book dealing with race and racism in post-apartheid South Africa. His first book, Making the Media Work for You (2002), provided insights into the media industry. He undertakes projects in media and social transformation, and has lectured on transformation and race in several countries.

He has edited many books, magazines and newspaper supplements on topics such as Nelson Mandela, the National Development Plan, Empowerment, Corporate Social Investment and democracy in general.

Fisher is chairperson of the Cape Town Festival, which he initiated while editor of the Cape Times in 1999 as part of the ‘One City, Many Cultures’ project.

He served on the Board of Trustees of Brand South Africa, the body marketing South Africa abroad, until March 2016. He has also been appointed to the Council of the University of the Free State until 2019.